WEC 44 took place Nov. 18 at The Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Jose Aldo topped WEC featherweight champion Mike Brown in the night’s main event, and Manny Gamburyan edged Leonard Garcia in the co-headliner.

The WEC 44 ratings were similar to those for WEC 43, which drew 419,000 viewers. The Oct. 10 event, which took place at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, featured Benson’s Henderson’s decision victory over Donald Cerrone in the night’s main event.

Of course, the WEC and Versus set a ratings record in June 2008 for WEC 34. The event, which featured a WEC featherweight championship bout between then-title-holder Urijah Faber and Jens Pulver, scored a 1.4 rating and averaged 1.54 million viewers.
However, the WEC traditionally has drawn audiences of 400,000 to 500,000 on the cable station.

Versus, though. has been in a bit of a state of flux in recent months after it was dropped by DirecTV.

However, the WEC bolstered its audience soon after thanks to a recent offering from the DISH Network, which was announced in September (after the WEC rescheduled WEC 43 from Sept. 2 to Oct. 10). DISH Network, which boasts approximately 13.6 million subscribers (compared to DirecTV’s 18 million), is offering Versus for free through Dec. 2 to all new and existing customers.

The WEC also recently expanded its international audience with deals in Australia and Brazil.